The big London Porter breweries didn’t even brew Mild Ale until the 1830s. Before that, they had concentrated exclusively on Porter and Stout. This might have been for purely logistical reasons as until 1829, Beer (i.e. Porter and Stout) came in different-sized barrels to Ale. Though the beginning of a wane in Porter’s popularity might well also have played a role.
In the 1830s and 1840s, London brewers produced a full range of Mild Ales, from X to XXXX. Gradually the stronger versions, of which only modest quantities were ever brewed, were discontinued. A few stronger Milds were still around in the 1880s, but a decade later pretty much only X Ale survived. Albeit being brewed in massive quantities.
Late 19th-century X Ales look ridiculously strong to modern eyes, often weighing in at over around 1060º. Believe it or not, gravities had declined. In the 1850s, most London examples of the style had been over 1070º.
It wasn’t just in terms of gravity that these Milds differed from modern versions. The rate of hopping was much higher. Averaging around 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, my calculations leave some at over 50 IBU. A crazily high level of bitterness to today’s eyes.
| London X Ales 1880 - 1899 | |||||||
| Year | Brewer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl |
| 1880 | Barclay Perkins | 1060.7 | 1013.6 | 6.23 | 77.63% | 10.29 | 2.69 |
| 1886 | Barclay Perkins | 1055.0 | 1010.0 | 5.96 | 81.87% | 6.42 | 1.61 |
| 1886 | Barclay Perkins | 1064.0 | 1015.0 | 6.49 | 76.63% | 8.00 | 1.97 |
| 1887 | Barclay Perkins | 1059.0 | 1016.1 | 5.68 | 72.77% | 6.07 | 1.34 |
| 1890 | Barclay Perkins | 1058.0 | 1016.9 | 5.44 | 70.87% | 9.06 | 2.19 |
| 1899 | Barclay Perkins | 1054.7 | 1009.4 | 5.99 | 82.78% | 8.85 | 1.98 |
| 1881 | Whitbread | 1061.2 | 1015.8 | 6.01 | 74.21% | 7.35 | 2.05 |
| 1885 | Whitbread | 1063.2 | 1019.9 | 5.72 | 68.42% | 8.04 | 2.21 |
| 1891 | Whitbread | 1059.6 | 1016.0 | 5.76 | 73.13% | 8.03 | 2.14 |
| 1895 | Whitbread | 1059.6 | 1016.0 | 5.76 | 73.13% | 8.01 | 2.17 |
| 1898 | Whitbread | 1058.4 | 1017.0 | 5.48 | 70.91% | 6.92 | 1.86 |
| 1887 | Fullers | 1050.7 | 1013.6 | 4.91 | 73.22% | 6.64 | 1.41 |
| 1893 | Fullers | 1050.4 | 1010.0 | 5.35 | 80.22% | 6.86 | 1.49 |
| 1898 | Fullers | 1049.6 | 1012.7 | 4.87 | 74.30% | 6.58 | 1.42 |
| 1880 | Truman | 1061.8 | 1015.2 | 6.16 | 75.34% | 10.8 | 3.35 |
| 1885 | Truman | 1059.0 | 8.0 | 2.12 | |||
| 1890 | Truman | 1058.2 | 8.9 | 2.30 | |||
| 1895 | Truman | 1056.5 | 7.6 | 2.03 | |||
| Average | 1057.7 | 1014.5 | 5.72 | 75.03% | 7.91 | 2.02 | |
| Sources: | |||||||
| Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/579, ACC/2305/1/584, ACC/2305/1/583, ACC/2305/1/586 and ACC/2305/1/593. | |||||||
| Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047, LMA/4453/D/01/050, LMA/4453/D/01/057, LMA/4453/D/01/061 and LMA/4453/D/01/064 | |||||||
| Fullers brewing records hels at the brewery. | |||||||
| Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/161, B/THB/C/166, B/THB/C/171 and B/THB/C/175. | |||||||
This is the one style (or style/period) I don't feel I've got any handle on at all. It was 5-6%, it was 'mild' (new/fresh), it was pretty bitter, and it was the most popular beer style by volume... but what was it like?
ReplyDeleteIs there any contemporary analogue? One or two strong milds reach the 5-6% area (e.g. Sarah Hughes') but none of them are particularly bitter. Most of the old-school 5-6%ers I can think of hark back to old ale, not mild (although I suspect that nineteenth-century old ales would have been a lot more bretty than e.g. Old Peculier or Fuller's 1845). Also, if this was the high-volume seller, how were people drinking it - surely not in pints? Certainly not in sessions...!
We tend to think of the pre-Lloyd George beerhouse as something pretty much like a 1960s pub, only with stronger beer, but I don't think it can have been.
"This might have been for purely logistical reasons as until 1829, Beer (i.e. Porter and Stout) came in different-sized barrels to Ale."
ReplyDeleteWhat was the lofgistical issue? And why not just switch the logistically more convenient size for both?
You can see exactly the same change at Truman – see Terry R. Gourvish and Richard G. Wilson, The British Brewing Industry 1830-1980, p81. It would be very interesting to see comparative figures for the original ale brewers, Manns, Charrington and Courage, who had, of course, grown enormously over the previous 40 years on the back of rising sales of mild ale. They all had started brewing porter and stout too, but I'd be confident in saying that they, too, saw porter sales drop away from 1870.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeletethe logistical issue was having two sets of barrels, one for Ale, the other for Beer. There was a tax per barrel at the time. If you filled Ale into 36-gallon barrels you'd be dodging some of the tax. While if you filled Beer into Ale barrels you'd be paying more tax that necessary.
Phil,
ReplyDeletethe closest modern beers would be things like Harvey's Old Ale.
I think people really were having sessions and drinking pints. I've seen comments from the 1920s remarking how much more sober people had become since beer had been reduced in strength.